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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Telecommunications, like so many other areas, reflected
Côte
d'Ivoire's colonial heritage. Thus, 251 telephone circuits
linked
Côte d'Ivoire with France, and 29 linked it with Senegal,
the
former colonial seat for French West Africa
(Afrique Occidentale Française--OAF; see Glossary).
No circuits linked Côte
d'Ivoire
directly with its immediate neighbors. A telephone call
from
Abidjan to Accra, Ghana, traveled via Paris and London to
Accra.
Recognizing the inconvenience of such arrangements, the
government
planned by 1990 to lay a marine cable linking Côte
d'Ivoire with
Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, and Gambia. In addition,
nineteen
telephone circuits linked Côte d'Ivoire with the United
States and
nineteen with Britain.
In 1984 there were 87,700 installed telephone lines in
the
country, or 1.3 telephones per 100 people. Only 45 percent
of the
telephones were working at any one time because of
technical
problems, however, so actual users of telephone service
numbered
59,247. In 1986 Abidjan had 67.9 percent of the total
number of
telephone lines in the country, or one telephone per 50
inhabitants
compared with one telephone per 430 inhabitants in the
interior of
the country. At the end of 1986, outside of Abidjan 115
cities had
telephone service, of which 44 were equipped with
automatic
installations. The government intended to construct a
network of
satellite earth stations in the interior in the early
1990; the
network would improve rural telephone service
dramatically.
Meanwhile, the military, government offices, and some
businesses
used radio communications, which were the responsibility
of the
National Telecommunications Bureau (Office Nationale de
Télécommunications--ONT).
As of the mid-1980s, ONT was beset with problems in
spite of
its new US$35 million headquarters. It suffered from
traffic
congestion, a poor call-completion rate (as few as 50
percent, 30
percent, and 20 percent for urban, interurban, and
international
call attempts, respectively); poor billing and collections
(accounts receivable amounted to twelve months' receipts,
or CFA
F31 billion); an inadequate tariff structure; and lack of
oversight. Moreover, the ONT often bought sophisticated
technology
that ended up increasing rather than reducing maintenance
costs.
In 1982 the postal service handled 59,861,000 pieces of
mail
and 581,000 telegrams, or approximately 6 pieces per
capita. There
were 1,181 telex subscriber lines.
Data as of November 1988
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